Finding the right fit for your developer team: From job post to offer

Recruitment is an expensive exercise. Businesses make an enormous investment finding the right candidate for a role, both in terms of skills and cultural fit. This is made even more challenging in the current market, where budgets are tighter and there are more developers on the lookout for their ideal job.

In a recent webinar, OfferZen’s VP of Product Stephen van der Heijden spoke with Lisa Durward (Talent Advisor), Nicola Osman (Account Manager) and Henri Kotze (Product Manager) about how businesses can optimise their hiring process to find the right fit for their teams.

Go proactive or reactive

There are two ways you can go about hiring top talent for your team: go out and find developers you want, or let them come to you. While being reactive doesn’t always have the best implications, it can be useful in some situations.

“Proactive hiring is targeted from the company side – you’re in control. You can create really tight criteria to define what you’re looking for, which allows you to be very targeted,” explained Henri.

“Reactive hiring is on the other side of the marketplace. This is when you’re open to applications coming in and getting an inbox full of CVs from candidates who might fit. It could be anything from an application from a job post to a recommendation or referral from somebody in your company,” he added.

“When you’re reactive, you just need to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’, so it’s fast and a little simpler. When you’re proactive, you’re being more targeted. You’re going out and searching for or targeting exactly what you’re looking for.”

The method you choose will largely depend on how well-defined the role you’re looking to fill is, how much interest your team is capable of fielding as well as your desired time to hire.

“Reactive definitely works if you’re struggling with a really rare skill,” said Nicola. “That’s where we would come in and make recommendations. It’s the best way if you don’t want to be bombarded with CVs that don’t necessarily fit your role.”

“If you know exactly what you’re looking for, it’s better to go in and define your job spec – whether you’re using OfferZen Apply or whether you’re going in and handpicking them – that’s likely the best way to go,” she added.

Keep candidates engaged

Although there’s been some cooling in the tech hiring market over the past couple of years, competition for top talent is still high. The team outlined four strategies you can use to ensure you’re able to take your pick of the best developers out there.

1. Show your interest

The real hiring work starts once you’ve identified the candidates that you believe will be the best fit for your company. To make a great impression, it’s important to show that you’re interested in their particular skill set or profile.

“When a developer gets an interview request or a message from a company that shows that the hiring manager has actually looked at their profile – this could be mentioning something about the work they’ve done, a company they’ve worked at or a specific skill they have – it makes that candidate feel handpicked and immediately sparks a lot more interest,” said Lisa.

2. Tell them what you want

“If you’re going to be proactive and reach out to candidates, your message needs to be very intentional,” noted Nicola. “Your job description needs to have the right information. You want to outline whether it’s remote or hybrid, the growth opportunities and so on.”

“Tell the candidates, in a few lines, what they’ll actually be doing or what exciting projects they’ll get to work on and open up the lines of communication. Try to put yourself in the candidate’s shoes and give them everything that you’d want to know if you were going into the job market.”

Henri agreed here, pointing out that tech leads and hiring managers can take advantage of OfferZen’s platform design to ensure that you hit all of these points and impress potential hires.

“Make sure the candidate knows upfront what the job is. We’ve heard so often from candidates that they get frustrated when they’re reached out to but they don’t know what the job spec is. We have a feature where you can actively link your position when you send the interview request so that you can easily get that conversation rolling,” he said.

3. Share your roadmap for success

More than half of developers will abandon an interview process due to a negative experience. Transparency about the interview process is critical here, with 58.5% of developers noting role and process transparency are the biggest factors in creating a positive candidate experience.

“We often get candidates asking, ‘What’s the next step? What do we do now? When will I hear back?’ If that’s all outlined at the very beginning, the candidate will feel more relaxed and calm, and will have a chance to get excited about the company and the role,” said Nicola.

In addition to reducing the worry around this already stressful process, creating a roadmap for interview success will help to build on the interest that you sparked with your initial outreach.

“One of the most important things when trying to hire the best talent in the business is keeping those candidates interested and warm,” explained Lisa. “You’ve got to let them know the processes, how long each step will take, how they can prepare for everything. This just makes it feel a lot more personal and sparks that interest.”

4. Stay on top of your communication

No matter how well-defined your interview process is – or how well you plan to execute each stage – there’s always a possibility that things might be delayed. In these instances, it’s important to keep potential hires updated about what’s going on.

“Some of the hurdles and blockers that we experience at the offer stage are the checks, like qualification checks and references. Those take time and if the processes are super delayed, then the candidate’s interest can start to wane,” said Lisa.

“You have to keep the ABC mentality: always be closing. Keep checking up and give the candidate the opportunity to talk to you and voice their concerns or excitements so that you can gauge how interested they are, because that’s how you’re going to win,” added Nicola.

Make connections that count

Although OfferZen can give you access to a bunch of great developers, it’s important that you find the right cultural fit. This starts with making connections on which you can build personal relationships.

“Being clear up front about what things are really important to you – and making that really accurate – means that you can already make that screening fit happen before you even start interviewing,” said Henri.

“Creating that personal connection is important. Asking them what they’re looking for goes to showing how you treat people and that you actually care about them and creating a fit, as opposed to just making sure that they meet your requirements,” added Stephen.